A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

After getting off the school bus, Ke Mingqing headed straight to his classroom. He shoved his backpack into his desk drawer and pulled up a chair.

With the holidays approaching and final exams looming, a heavy, low-pressure atmosphere hung over the classroom.

Ke Mingqing was easily the most absentminded student in the room. He rested his chin on one hand and spun a ballpoint pen with the other.

Staring at the spinning tip of the pen, he let his thoughts wander.

What if I take a different route and find a chance to negotiate with Mom alone? he wondered. If the alien is willing to protect me, I'd be invincible in this family's ecosystem. No matter what Crowman, Second Sister, or Eldest Brother try to do to me, I'll have a high chance of surviving.

Ke Mingqing lowered his eyes, glancing at the Tracking Sunglasses stashed in his drawer. But the question is, what do I say to convince her? How do I negotiate without stepping on a landmine?

With that in mind, he looked out the window at the sun-baked athletic field.

The students from Class Two next door were practicing high jumps, but Jiang Qingzi had excused himself, claiming he felt unwell.

He sat in the shade of a tree, quietly watching the others bounce around in the sandpit and occasionally offering a light round of applause.

To Ke Mingqing, the scene looked exactly like a towering giant watching the citizens of Lilliput show off their height, nodding in continuous praise.

Just then, Jiang Qingzi looked up from the shade toward the school building, his eyes meeting Ke Mingqing's from a distance.

Jiang Qingzi blinked in surprise, then smiled and waved.

Ke Mingqing sighed. Eldest Brother, you really aren't even pretending anymore, are you? How could you possibly notice me watching you from this far away?

He waved back out the window with a shooing motion—like he was swatting a fly—and looked away.

First of all, Eldest Brother is a mutant, Younger Sister is a magical girl, and Third Sister is a mythic vessel. Based on these examples, it's pretty much guaranteed that Mom is collecting samples of Earth's super-human species. That's why she's cultivated so many different types.

Ke Mingqing muttered silently, flipping through his biology textbook to stare at a plant crossbreeding diagram.

But to her, a "player" should still be a mystery... After all, it's a new type of super-human that only appeared in the last couple of days. If I reveal to her that I'm a player right now, her reaction will ultimately depend on whether or not she actually has feelings for this family.

He closed the biology textbook. If she only sees her children and husband as research specimens, then I have a chance to negotiate with her.

But if Mom doesn't just see this family as guinea pigs and actually harbors genuine affection for them, I'll die a very, very miserable death. I won't even live long enough for Eldest Brother and the others to make a move.

Anyway, while Eldest Brother and Second Sister aren't home yet, I should have White Jack test the waters and figure out Mom's true feelings about the family. That's the safer play. Right as this thought crossed his mind, the teacher called him up to the board to solve a math problem.

Getting caught flipping through a biology textbook during math class was bound to have obvious consequences.

Standing at the chalkboard, he had just picked up a piece of chalk when he received a message from his friends list. A red notification dot floated into the upper right corner of his vision.

Ke Mingqing read the text on the system panel while writing out the solution steps.

[Kuroki Hitomi: My family's maid wants your contact info.]

Ke Mingqing froze, snapping the chalk in his hand with a sharp crack. He grabbed a fresh piece and used his mind to type a reply on the panel.

[Ke Mingqing: ?]

[Kuroki Hitomi: She said you're her classmate's older brother, so it must be fate.]

[Ke Mingqing: Alright, send her my WeChat.]

[Kuroki Hitomi: Okay. She said she'll add you later.]

[Kuroki Hitomi: Oh, right, one more thing.]

[Ke Mingqing: What is it?]

[Kuroki Hitomi: I've been meaning to ask you, do you still remember the orphanage?]

The orphanage?

Ke Mingqing shifted his gaze from the chat panel, set the chalk back on the ledge, and glanced at the girl with the teardrop mole in the distance. Her face was bathed in sunlight, making her expression impossible to read.

Seeing this "couple" acting so brazenly—shamelessly showing off their affection even while one was up at the board—the rest of the class began to jeer and hoot.

Ke Mingqing returned to his seat and resumed spinning his ballpoint pen.

[Ke Mingqing: The orphanage? The one from this life, or the one from my past life?]

He didn't know why he typed that, but it felt like he had just cracked a twisted, dark joke.

To be honest, he hadn't felt much during his first few days after crossing over. Over the last couple of days, however, he could feel the symptoms of memory erosion growing increasingly severe, to the point that it was subtly affecting his sense of self.

Sometimes, when he lay in bed recalling the orphanage, he couldn't tell if those memories belonged to his current life or his previous one.

[Kuroki Hitomi: If you don't remember, never mind.]

Ke Mingqing didn't think much of it and looked away.

After school that day, Ke Mingqing took the bus to the Old Jingmai District. Instead of heading straight home, he walked toward a desolate restricted area. He squeezed through a hole in the chain-link fence, trudged through overgrown weeds, and stopped in front of a long-abandoned train station.

He took a deep breath, looked at the pitch-black entrance of the station, and stepped inside.

Drip...

Drip...

The hollow sound of dripping water echoed from deep within the tunnel. With his backpack on and his hands shoved in his pockets, he walked straight down the passage. Before long, he saw light.

The sign overhead was heavily weathered by time. The text for Platform 7 had faded into a blurry swath of white, looking like crumbled chalk dust.

Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili had been here many times in the past, so he was familiar with the layout.

He walked onto the deserted Platform 7 and stopped in front of a dust-covered bank of storage lockers. The surface of Locker 7 was exceptionally clean, as if someone had specifically wiped it down.

Ke Mingqing reached out and pulled Locker 7 open. Inside, he found a folded blue combat suit and a helmet shaped like a blue pigeon.

"I'll make my debut tonight and give the old man a massive surprise," he said, the corners of his mouth curling up.

Just then, he heard the roar of a train. That would be perfectly normal in a regular train station, but this place had been abandoned for nearly ten years. How could there be a train?!

"A train? In a place like this?"

Ke Mingqing froze and looked back. At that instant, headlights tore through the darkness, illuminating his face.

He raised an arm to shield his face, squinting as an antique red train rumbled out of the tunnel. At the same time, a system panel materialized in his vision.

[Leijing Weekly Instance discovered: 'Legend of the Ghost Train Conductor'.]

[Recommended Player Level: Lv. 4]

[Instance Clearance Rewards: 1. Ghost Train Ticket (Once a week, you may use this ticket to board the Ghost Train and travel to any abandoned train station in the world);]

[2. Superhuman coins, Experience Points, Instance Items, etc...]

[Note: This instance will disappear at 0:00 on Sunday. Please clear it before the time limit expires.]

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